DENVER — The Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance has welcomed its first-ever African pancake tortoise, officials announced Wednesday.
DZCA officials said they first discovered a “perfect little egg” in their pancake tortoise habitat last December. The team who discovered it took it to the zoo’s Tropical Discovery where it egg was incubated it for the last six months.
Then, late last month, officials said there was a successful hatching of a female tortoise.
“She might be tiny for now, but her role in conservation is huge,” zoo officials said in a news release. “Pancake tortoises are Critically Endangered, and this marks the first successful breeding and hatching at DZCA.”
The zoo is also home to four other pancake tortoises including her mom Waffles and three males named Short-Stack, Denny, and Flapjack. They’re all behind-the-scenes though, but people can still see them at Ambassadors Carts throughout the summer.
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